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The best leather you can find

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Published
10/16/2022 by

This leather is like the watch it fastens: Made patiently following old traditions—by people who love their craft. The resulting products belong to those rare items which, as they change in time, only get better: The colors deepen; sun and wear alter the material—a beautiful metamorphosis. This leather is made by a tannery in Chicago: The Horween Leather Company.

Straps made from Genuine Shell Cordovan, as this leather is called, are only found on watches from NOMOS Glashütte. It is true that other manufacturers use equine leather as well, but only NOMOS Glashütte uses the finest, most supple, and durable part of the hide; two small ovals, the existence and distinctive quality of which only few people are aware. Two thick, smooth, shell-shaped parts located to the right and left on the rump above the tail. The leather shells are small—some just the size of a palm or two, others slightly larger, and they are thick because the parts are located in the horse’s “blind spot”: An area the horse can’t reach with its tail or teeth to get rid of pesky flies. The hide is thicker there to prevent the flies from being a nuisance.
Horsehide is rare, because horses themselves are becoming rare as machines have largely replaced workhorses. The animals are not raised for their hide—no horse dies for this purpose. This makes the Horween tannery in Chicago the last of its kind. A world-famous family-owned company, established in 1905. They also make the leather used in the footballs of the National Football League (NFL) and basketballs of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Artisans scrape and cut the hides by hand at the workshop in Chicago. The leather is then vegetable tanned, air-dried on glass frames, curried with bark dyes and oils and burnished with heavy rollers. Afterward it is stored to allow the oils to penetrate and darken the hide. The process is elaborate, requiring over a hundred individual steps and at least six months to complete. Today, things are done much as they were 120 years ago. But patience pays off: This smooth, yet robust leather yields straps for watches which bring joy to their wearers for years and years.

Are your users interested in things which age well? Is artisanry right up your alley? We’d be delighted to send you straps and watches to try out, wear and photograph. Feel free to contact us, we look forward to hearing from you.

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